Folks, the conditions look excellent and such an opportunity doesn’t happen every year, so plan your morning accordingly!
Favorable forecast for observing a large loon flight tomorrow morning (Nov 12): 1. We are in the window when big fall flights have been documented in the past. 2. We’ve had southerly winds with no loon movement since Nov 3rd (8 days) - the spring is loaded. 3. Weather forecast tomorrow is for NNW wind @ 7 mph - perfect for the spring to unload. 4. Viewing conditions should be good – mostly cloudy with no lake effect snow. 5. Temp ~43 F, so not brutally cold. Loons from current migratory aggregations on the Finger Lakes and southern Lake Ontario are likely to embark for southbound passage as early as 6:40 am. The main flight off Cayuga & Seneca Lake will mostly vector down the lake basins and have passed on by 7:30 am. So places like Stewart Park and Clute Park (Watkins Glen) should offer good viewing. If you can get there in time, Taughannock State Park can be a wonderful site to view the early flight down Cayuga. The peak of the flight off Lake Ontario will likely pass over Ithaca/Watkins Glen latitudes between 7:45 and 8:30, with lesser magnitude continuing thereafter. The densest flight vectors from Lake Ontario have been noted in the past coursing down the east side of the Seneca Lake Basin and the west side of the Cayuga Lake Basin, but the flight off Lake Ontario can be seen to some degree from high terrain anywhere in the southern Finger Lakes and Southern Tier counties of NY. If you have the opportunity to observe, please post your results here and/or eBird including the location & time period you counted, direction of flight, and the percentage of loons estimated to be flying below 1000 feet/300 m above ground level. Best wishes! Bill Evans -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
